A year ago I was still a student, clawing my way through my final year in an attempt to rectify the previous months of oversleeping and under working. The last few months of my studies were a blur of scrawled notes and endless research, and the biggest obstacle I faced was battling the occasional all-consuming hangover. However I was urged on through the long slog by the chorus of 'it'll all be worth it in the end' chirped at me by hopeful parents and lecturers desperate to keep up their stellar pass rate.

I was promised that the hard work and 4am bedtimes would be worth the degree earned at the end which would be my fast-track golden ticket to my dream career, so I kept my eyes patiently focused on the promises of freedom and success that glimmered on the horizon.

Fast forward to present day and I'm a graduate going nowhere; I'm employed in a monotonous, mind-numbing temping role despite submitting and promptly getting rejected from more than 200 jobs.

Despite my optimism level reaching a dangerous low, I still start each application with a deep breath, a renewed sense of positivity and the fresh hope that maybe this time will be different.

For every 30 applications I receive one generic rejection and the rest are ignored. My inbox now almost gives me a sympathetic smile and braces for the worst each time I excitedly open an email from a prospective employer. From my endless applications I have only received feedback twice which vaguely informs me that the company loved my personality, but they've selected someone with more experience. Companies often generate an automated response informing me that I have not been successful on this occasion, and cannot provide any further feedback at this time – without any advice on how to progress, how should I know what I'm doing wrong?

In the hope of improving my chances I signed up for instant job alerts, joined endless recruitment agencies and use Twitter to follow media recruiters to hopefully spot a golden opportunity, but to no avail. These sites provide more opportunities, but I'm still knocked back from them without so much as a 'no thank you'.

I emerge from the settling dust generated by my constant crazed job search and find myself asking why I am so easy to reject and where is the job that I was always promised was waiting for me?

I come to the conclusion that it must be one of two things: either my deodorant has stopped working or my application's aren't up to scratch.

Bouncing back from countless rejections is difficult, but after realising that an hour spent face down in a gallon of Haagen Dazs isn't helping my career or my waistline, I decide to take action and start with the root cause of potential problems – my CV.

More than just a Word document, a great CV is the Holy Grail that every graduate aspires to and hopes will lead to a brighter, better career. To develop a CV that would hopefully grab potential employers by the gonads and shout 'HIRE ME' like it should do, I began to adapt my CV to suit each application individually.

I had already listed my personal details and had underlined the relativity and extent of my experience, but now adapted the content to reflect my passion for fashion when applying for a retail role, my love of broadcasting when applying to television roles and so forth. This isn't a case of 'padding out' a CV to hopefully blag a role that you have skills for, but honing the content to suit a specific job and highlight the attributes required for the role. I now have a saved selection of specific-to-sector CV's that are ready submission at a moment's notice and should have hopefully helped me rise above the swelling sea of graduates applying for the same position by now.

However despite my best efforts to overcome rejection and adapt my applications, I find myself still crawling through the unending swamp of unanswered emails and generic job sites in the hope that my efforts won't go unrewarded. The thought enters my mind that the next step to get noticed may be to waltz into an employer's office with my CV painted across my naked flesh, but even then I'm sure they'd find fault in the fact that my employment history is slightly obscured by my bum-crack and would usher me out quietly and assure me that they would keep my details on file for six months.

I have received reams of messages from those who find themselves in the same post-study slump as I, and are all doing their utmost to appeal to employers and excel above the others. However when we try our hardest to overcome the rejections and try to fight our way to an interview but are still ignored, we're finding ourselves all posing the same question: what's a graduate got to do?

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